I DREAM OF A BETTER TOMORROW
“Obscure – the ‘no hits’ concert series where every song is a hit in the heart of someone, somewhere…”
★★★★★
PET SHOP BOYS Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe have treated fans to a surprise performance of a brand new song, written for their latest project, a musical called Naked. The song was premiered on Monday evening at London’s Electric Ballroom on the opening night of the legendary pop synth duo’s five-day Obscure concert series.
A work in progress, Naked has been described by Tennant as a “tune-central” musical. Based on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale, The Emperor’s New Clothes, it will explore themes of vanity, deception and truth, all of whichl feature in the source material. Closing the two hour concert on Monday night, Tennant teased the audience, “This is our last song. You’ve never heard it before, it’s from Naked… It’s called, I Dream of a Better Tomorrow.”
A rousing call to arms with a timely message of change, its catchy refrain – ‘This is the moment, this is the time’ – has already seen it ear-marked a fan favourite.
The sneak preview comes just as MUSIK, their 2019 cabaret musical starring Frances Barber, comes to the big screen. Written by Jonathan Harvey and featuring six songs from Tennant and Lowe, MUSIK finds Barber reprising the role of Billie Trix, a part she originated in Closer To Heaven, Harvey and Pet Shop Boys first musical collaboration, at London’s Arts Theatre, in 2001
Launched at a private Friends and Family Screening at the Soho Screening Rooms on Tuesday evening, the 75-minute film version of MUSIK premieres in cinemas across the UK and Ireland tomorrow, with an encore screening on 12 April and further releases in the pipeline.
Directed by Andy Morahan, who co-directed the music videos for Pet Shop Boys’ breakthrough hit West End Girls and the original version of Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money) in 1985, as well as the video for Love Comes Quickly a year later, MUSIK is described as ‘a genre-defying exploration of fame, failure and fierce individuality, all wrapped in sequins and spiked with satire’.
At the core of the film is a live recording from MUSIK’s 2025 run at London’s Wilton’s Music Hall, along with additional scenes filmed specifically for a cinema audience. Featuring the songs, Mongrel, Soup, Run Girl Run, Ich Bin Musik, Friendly Fire and For Every Moment, MUSIK The Film introduces cinema-goers to Billie Trix, a ‘radical, existentialist and preposterous icon’ in a bold, laugh out loud funny ‘one-woman odyssey through the 20th and 21st centuries’.
★★★★★
“Barber’s performance beautifully strides MUSIK’s live and cinematic qualities…”
From post-war Berlin to the New York art scene, from folk duos to disco comebacks, Billie Trix has done it all – often naked, usually high, and always on her own terms. Drawing on her warped memories, lost loves, and chaotic career, Billie delivers a savage, surreal monologue that collides memoir, stand-up, and cabaret.
For the film’s producer, Denise Silvey, who also produced the stage production, it’s the culmination of a seven year journey and the beginning of a whole new chapter for the project. Recalling how it all started she says, “My MUSIK Journey started in May 2019 when I was sent a copy of the script by Jonathan Harvey’s agent. The following week I found myself in a central London club with the Pet Shop Boys and Jonathan discussing a trip to the Edinburgh Festival.
“As it was by then well into the organisation of the Edinburgh Fringe for that year, we were offered a late evening slot in The Spiegeltent, outside the Assembly Rooms. We grabbed it and played to full houses for the entire run. We managed to secure a week’s run immediately afterwards at the Leicester Square Theatre, that September. Due to the success of that, we were invited back in February 2020. This we did, and then…. Covid struck.
“We had plans for a tour, a possible New York run and whatever, but all that remained of the show at that point was inside my storage unit – where it stayed for five years. During the pandemic I started working with Peter Duncan on a series of filmed pantos and that got me thinking about filming the show. I contacted PSB’s management to see if they’d be up for that, and they introduced me to Andy Morahan. Together Andy and I started plotting a film.
“After four years of one step forward and two steps back, we hit on the idea of remounting the stage show for a short run at Wilton’s Music Hall in London and using that as the springboard for making the film. Frances Barber in her own magical way jumped at the opportunity of revisiting Billie Trix. So, in October 2025, and this time under the baton of stage director Terry Johnson, Billie was reborn, this time bigger and better than before. Andy then took the footage from the show and turned it into MUSIK The Film, allowing Billie to live on permanently in glorious celluloid. Who knows where she goes from here?”
Frances Barber adds, “Performing as Billie Trix has always been a live, dangerous exchange, and the big screen brings audiences closer than ever to that relationship. Sharing Billie with cinema audiences feels like giving the show a bold new lease of life.’
MUSIK by Jonathan Harvey with songs by Pet Shop Boys, tomorrow & 12 April, tickets HERE
In partnership with lumo.co.uk – Connecting Must See Theatre in Edinburgh, London and Beyond
